Madame Ovary (WildChild Productions)

Though ‘Madame Ovary’ chronicles Rosa Hesmondhalgh’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, it’s not a show about cancer. It’s about life, and love, and friendship: close relationships, established over years, and the brief, intense connections with those we meet only fleetingly. Rosa’s performance is funny, sincere, compelling, distraught…she takes the audience with her on her journey, every step of the way. We feel the shocks and surprises with her. We feel the looming dread and the weight of mortality. We feel the love of her friends, and family. And, I sincerely hope, as we rise to our feet, fighting back tears, to deliver a well-earned standing ovation, that she feels some of that love reflected back.